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Thomas Built Buses expands operations as demand grows

A picture of the battery electric Saf-T-Liner C2 Jouley. Thomas Built Buses says overall, it currently produces a small percentage of electric buses, but that number is growing. The company says its product can travel more than 130 miles on a single charge. Image credit: Thomas Built Buses

A Triad manufacturer is growing its operations. Thomas Built Buses recently announced an expansion at its High Point facility.

The company is adding a new production shift at the Saf-T-Liner C2 plant in High Point manufacturing traditional and electric school buses. The change will mean hiring 280 new employees. Those positions include assembly technicians, machine operators and welders.

Mario DiFoggio is the Marketing and Communications Manager with the company. He says pent up demand from the pandemic is driving more interest in their products and an increase in orders for electric buses is expected due to the federal Clean School Bus Program.

“Those funds available, the rebates have not been given out by the federal government as of yet, but they will start in earnest over the next couple of months, so when we see that we will start to see more and more districts across the United States apply for that funding and ultimately purchase our products, so we have to ramp up for that.”

Thomas Built Buses introduced its first fully electric school bus in 2017.

The company has called High Point home for more than 100 years and currently employs more than 1,600 people. 

An in-person job fair for the new positions will take place on June 4 at the company's headquarters on Courtesy Road.

Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

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